Rappresentazioni mentali, modelli culturali e concetti culturalmente specifici nel quadro della Linguistica Cognitiva: verso un approccio interculturale

Abstract – In a dynamic and ever-evolving society, where people with different cultural backgrounds, social habits and linguistic patterns meet and interact, the intercultural linguistic mediator plays a key role as a ‘facilitator of communication’, providing services across a broad spectrum of socio-cultural differences. In the perspective of intercultural mediation, the approach developed by Cognitive Linguistics (CL) can serve as an important theoretical framework for the training of mediators. CL posits a close relationship between form and meaning, language and cognition, making the semantic-conceptual level the main focus of its interest. Indeed, each language categorizes the world differently, it has its own cultural models, often transmitted by metaphors; in other words, linguistic categories reflect conceptual operations carried out by speakers. It follows that understanding the conceptual mechanisms and mental representations which underlie linguistic expressions is crucial to facilitate the process of interaction between speakers belonging to different linguistic and cultural contexts. Linked to language, gesture and facial expressions are also used to convey meaning and can differ across cultures; thus it is also worth taking these two aspects of non-verbal communication into account. CL also focuses on matters of universality and language specificity. Besides a set of universal concepts or ‘semantic primes’, expressed in all languages and cultures in the world (even with formal variations), there are several culture-specific concepts/words/scripts and grammatical patterns, grounded in the historical and cultural experiences of each linguistic community. The formulation and interpretation of these concepts, related to typical values, norms and practices, can be a source of misunderstanding during interaction; this is why a mediator has to possess solid linguistic and cultural, or better still, intercultural competences of the two universes which come into contact, in order to help dialogue and mutual comprehension and to overcome communication barriers

Linguistic and idiological-cultural aspects in the translation of humour. A case study of the comic series, Agrippine

Positioned at an intersection between linguistic manipulation and the sociocultural roots of a community, humour is often considered untranslatable – an element of interlinguistic and intercultural inequivalence. This paper looks especially at the translation of humour in comics, which consists of composite, multisemiotic texts where both verbal and non-verbal components blend into a single, unified language. In our analysis, we will examine a varied selection of examples from Claire Bretécher’s comic series, Agrippine, the humour of which is based on the use of partly genuine, partly invented slang and situations grounded in specific sociocultural and ideological contexts. We will investigate some of the main issues associated with the presence of humour (whether verbal, linguo-cultural and/or visual), as well as some strategies that can be adopted when translating from French into Italian, in order to maintain the humorous effects of the source text

Aa. Vv., «Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century»

Il volume che presentiamo con imperdonabile ritardo, si articola in quattro sezioni. In apertura, «Correspondence and epistolary fiction» comprende diversi interventi che propongono un excursus sulle raccolte epistolari di Mme de Graffigny ed altri scrittori francesi del ‘700, su Beaumarchais, Dupaty e Marmontel. Preceduti da una breve presentazione di Joan Hinde Stewart, English Showalter e Charles A. Porter, i contributi di Joan Hinde Stewart, Fifteen minutes till fifty, pp. 7-16, English S..

La littérature de l’entre-deux et le regard sur la langue française. Enjeux linguistiques et identitaires dans l'oeuvre de Fouad Laroui

Fouad Laroui, a talented Moroccan author who writes in French and at times Dutch, is an exemplar of the in-between – in fact, the in-between-several-cultures. Like many Moroccans, he is “neither here nor there”. His original work, notable for the author’s dual belonging as well as its highly ironic vein, embodies multiple facets of multiculturalism, which he experienced during his youth at the French “lycée” in Casablanca, his trips to the western world (he now lives in Amsterdam) and through openness to European cultures. His stories in French are enriched with diverse references, resulting in a sort of patchwork – a jumble of words where the French language is present, but it is coloured by other languages and literary reminiscences (Laroui cited in Martin & Drevet 107).This article reflects on the author’s relationship with the French language and culture, by analysing the sense of identity and search for identity of his characters whose connections with France, and the western world, are marked by conflicting feelings, bearing traces of the Maghreb authors’ own sense of being torn. Is French an instrument of oppression or emancipation? The article focuses on two representative works, “Le jour où Malika ne s’est pas mariée” (2009) and “Une année chez les Français” (2010), set against the complex, multilingual backdrop of Morocco as discussed in his essay “Le drame linguistique marocain” (2011).Fouad Laroui, a talented Moroccan author who writes in French and at times Dutch, is an exemplar of the in-between – in fact, the in-between-several-cultures. Like many Moroccans, he is “neither here nor there”. His original work, notable for the author’s dual belonging as well as its highly ironic vein, embodies multiple facets of multiculturalism, which he experienced during his youth at the French “lycée” in Casablanca, his trips to the western world (he now lives in Amsterdam) and through openness to European cultures. His stories in French are enriched with diverse references, resulting in a sort of patchwork – a jumble of words where the French language is present, but it is coloured by other languages and literary reminiscences (Laroui cited in Martin & Drevet 107).This article reflects on the author’s relationship with the French language and culture, by analysing the sense of identity and search for identity of his characters whose connections with France, and the western world, are marked by conflicting feelings, bearing traces of the Maghreb authors’ own sense of being torn. Is French an instrument of oppression or emancipation? The article focuses on two representative works, “Le jour où Malika ne s’est pas mariée” (2009) and “Une année chez les Français” (2010), set against the complex, multilingual backdrop of Morocco as discussed in his essay “Le drame linguistique marocain” (2011)

Michela Landi, Rerum Novus, Nascitur Ordo. Decadenza e poetica del francese nella ‘Lettre sur les sourds et muets’ di Diderot

L’autrice conduce un’attenta ed acuta analisi sul prezioso contributo di Diderot all’evoluzione del pensiero linguistico in ambito europeo. Nell’incarnare il sentimento di relativismo etico ed estetico largamente diffuso nel Settecento, la Lettre sur les sourdr; et muets à l’usage de ceux qui entendent et qui parlent sposta il baricentro da un principio mimologico e sintagmatico, ancorato all’”ordo naturalis”, verso un principio paradigmatico e democratico, incentrato sull’autonomia noetica d..

Il teatro di José Pliya tra erranza, identità e complessità dell'essere umano

One of the most successful and appreciated playwrights in the contemporary Francophone world is José Pliva, a French-language writer of Beninese origin. "Auteur du Tout-monde", as he likes to be known, he writes to express his feelings and his inner vision of the world, and to investigate the evil and the violence that call out to be addressed. His interest centres on human beings and their complexities and sufferings, transcending geographical borders. As we shall see in this contribution, Pliya's characters live from conflict – personal, inner conflict against a backdrop of external, collective conflict (world wars, Rwandan genocide, etc.). Le Complexe de Thénardier and Une famille ordinaire are two of his most representative works in this regard. With Lettres à l'humanité, a voice is given to those who are normally unheard – be they colonised peoples, pieds-noirs, sans papiers or banlieusards – men and women caught between two lands, two continents, who aspire to change their lives and find happiness